Category Archives: Industry News

A long course title, but Macleay College’s new Diploma of Digital and Social Media Marketing packs a lot of marketing know-how and digital skills into its latest accelerated Diploma that’s designed to meet the emerging needs of the marketing sector.

There is little doubt that digital communications, and in particular Social Media, have revolutionised the marketing landscape and become essential components in any marketing and communications strategy. The American Marketing Association reported in its publication eMarketer that around a third of the world’s population now active social media users, a statistic that is growing by 1,000,000 users per day globally.

There is increasing demand in the job market for graduates who understand the intersection between marketing and digital strategy, have specialised digital production skills in areas such as digital design, written communications and producing assets for social media campaigns – and have the option of taking electives in digital photography, advanced digital design or coding and data analytics.

Macleay College has a strong history of offering industry-focused and future-facing courses in Business, Media and Communications. Their new course in Digital and Social Media Marketing fills the gap between the more traditional university marketing courses that are struggling to keep up with digital trends and the popular industry non-accredited short courses in social media marketing that with often just 2 – 12 weeks of study, do not tackle the deeper principles of marketing and can often not be used for credit for further study. Social & Content Manager at Connecting Plots and Macleay graduate Callam Hanks helped develop the new course and adds:

“At university, in a 3-year degree you have to do a lot of irrelevant courses (and pay for them) and in 3 years a lot can change in the industry. Whereas the industry non-accredited short courses can be too lightweight, so having a weightier marketing course than can accommodate fast change with possible elective options is ideal.”

Designed and delivered by industry professionals such as Zeina Khodr, previously General Manager at JWT’s content agency at Colloquial and now principle at Paper & Spark, Zeina’s current knowledge of industry practice and emerging trends gives Macleay’s newest course currency, depth and relevance.

Macleay’s Diploma of Digital and Social Media Marketing is made up of 8 units of study that can be completed in 2 trimesters, or 8 months of full-time study. As an accredited higher education provider, the course fees can be deferred over the Government’s Fee Help program, and all units of study can be used to apply for credit into Macleay Bachelor of Digital Media or Bachelor of Business – or also at other institutions.

With over 30 years of experience, Macleay College has a well-established reputation as a higher education provider. The college currently offers Diploma and Bachelor qualifications in Business, Marketing, Journalism, Advertising and Digital Media. Macleay’s courses have a strong industry focus and aim to be leading edge of the sectors they provide graduates for. Macleay is an agile education provider who teaches the application of knowledge and skills to meet the emerging needs of industry.

For further information contact: Ian Thomson on ithomson@macleay.edu.au

Photo caption: Macleay’s Head of Digital Media, Ian Thomson and Lecturer and principle of Paper and Spark, Zeina Khodr checking the latest trends in digital and social media marketing in preparation for Macleay College’s new course launch. Photo: Ben Strum.

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Congratulations to Macleay College lecturer Zeina Khodr for her recent publication in B&T Magazine. In her opinion piece (below) Zeina recaps her recent visit to the 8th Content Marketing World Conference in Cleveland and discusses why marketers need to think beyond ‘marketing’ their ‘content’.

F#*K content marketing, it’s about the content experience.

This isn’t me making a statement – it was emblazoned on a stand in the expo hall, but it’s a statement that resonates.

In fact, I even Instagrammed it.

For the second year running, I made the long-haul to Cleveland to attend the 8thContent Marketing World 2018.

I’m amongst over 4,000 marketers in attendance and immersed in the content game, and it seems the conference has moved past its own name because I realise pretty quickly it’s no longer just about content marketing.

This content gig is getting harder to do, and harder to do right.

Over the last few days I’ve spent some time kicking the tyres of AI-driven content, sitting in on a hardcore AI masterclass learning how to use R and Python, wading through spreadsheets of social sentiments and navigating IBM Watson.

I know for sure what many of us have long felt creeping up – our creativity, no matter how brilliant, can only get us so far anymore.

We need to marry that with data and insights, and get ourselves sorted in these respects damn quickly if we want to keep up and cut through.

AI is still something that gives people the creeps, and marketers are still navigating ways around this.

Most are not prepared for how big a game changer this is going to be, and understand very little about the impact AI will have on their business as a whole, let alone their marketing.

This year, the newest addition to the conference program focused on tech, platforms and data.

In fact, you would have felt right at home if you were a data-scientist and probably a little out of your depth if you were a straight-up creative.

Conversational Marketing made its debut but is still in its early phases.

We’re rapidly moving from the era of ‘search’ to the era of ‘ask’.

Figuring out how to take your SEO-driven and optimized content and make it relevant for conversational marketing is still a far-off reality for most marketers.

But the rise of voice-assistants and the proliferation of voice, in general, will bring this to a head. Need to unlock an Alexa skill for your brand?

Emerging megatrends had a strong presence in the conference content and expo hall – it was all about AI (yes it’s a big category), Immersive Experience (AR) and digital platforms. Yet the biggest surprise was perhaps the slight reluctance of content creators and marketers to deep dive. Most of the breakout sessions had a smattering of attendees while long lines formed for the intro sessions. The sentiment was that this stuff is hard, complex and most are still wrapping their heads around it, and will likely need to get their digital peeps on board.

My fellow Aussie, Natalie Giddings from The Remarkables presented an excellent session on Influencer Marketing with standing room only. So yeah, marketers are still grappling with some of the fundamentals.

My feelings on this? You can’t expect your creatives (the marketers and content creators) to become experts on this stuff overnight.

They’re right to feel overwhelmed – it is new territory, complex and difficult. But you do have a duty to help them grapple with what the industry is facing and form tighter alignment between digital and creative teams to give them the insights that will help them navigate this new landscape.

If you don’t work to bring them up to speed, you do them a disservice and risk them being left behind as the industry moves on, and you will be unable to provide a service to your clients that is cutting-edge and forward thinking.

With proliferating customer touch-points, what marketers should most care about is consistency across all channels and the content experience their users have at every point along the brand journey.

Whether you’re an insurance company or an FMCG brand, creating and managing content is a team sport and no longer the realm of clever content creators and storytelling.

Having just written the Digital Content Writing course for Macleay College and in the early stages of mapping out a Masterclass for Content Marketers for the Australian Marketing Institute, I’ll be rethinking some of the materials but knowing the fundamentals don’t change.

You absolutely have to focus on the audience and make it meaningful, but you also need to push your ideas forward and explore, with confidence and credibility, the new technologies available to you if you want the delivery of your ideas to remain interesting, relevant and most critically create curiosity.

So yeah, F#*K content marketing.

And remember that the universal truth still remains – whatever bit of ‘content’ you’re ‘marketing’, focus on the content and audience experience and make it meaningful. Audience attention can’t be bought, it’s earned over time.

The Advertising & Digital Media students at Macleay College Melbourne were lucky enough to be visited by Co-founder and Head of Strategy at The Lumery, Ben Fettes. The Lumery is a full-service customer experience agency that specialises in marketing and advertising technology. They make the connections between people, process, data and technology.

Ben spoke about how he started out creating his own agency and how The Lumery works. He mentioned that he first studied Marketing & Advertising but left university early and took an extra 6 months gap until he landed a job at Clemenger BBDO Advertising Agency in Melbourne.

He and a friend often joked about starting up their own agency and working by their own rules. One night after a few too many drinks, they decided to turn their jokes into a reality. They knew everything was on the line, but they were willing to take that chance.

It took a bunch of sleepless work nights to get to where they are today – a year and a half later from their original idea at the beginning.

Ben gave us a sneak peek at what The Lumery can do for their clients. It was quite interesting to see all the website data that can actually be seen from the client end. It was also a little bit creepy to know that all that data is kept forever and that someone can see exactly what we are doing and what we are looking for.

It was interesting that they can also personalise sites for the consumer that is online at any given moment.

It was super cool to see what goes on behind the scenes and all the strategy that goes into it. Being able to find out all the different aspects of an agency really made us all excited to see what is in our own futures in regards to working in agency after graduation.

We’re all super thankful for this opportunity to witness first-hand the ins and outs of the advertising industry.

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What if you could get some sort of insight into the key qualities and skills an ad agency looks for from a Macleay College grad. What if you could understand in advance just how valuable an internship is within an ad agency – even if you’re not at first getting paid? What if these answers were available ahead of time from the very people who make the decisions that help guide the future career opportunities for Macleay College grads? Wouldn’t knowing just these answers be very powerful career information?

Well, these and a handful of other questions were one’s I was able to ask of the Ad Industry at the recent Media Federation Australia ( MFA) “Lecture The Lecturer” conference in Sydney. Along with my fellow Macleay College lecturer Cameron Horn the MFA took us on a journey of presentations and workshops that helped the educators understand what the ad industry requires for their grads of the future. For the tertiary providers, we were encouraged to provide feedback on how we work closely with our students to equip them with the skills, knowledge and industry experience to meet the challenges of the advertising world beyond 2018.

“Anyone who has actual working knowledge of the industry when being interviewed for a job at UM has a considerable advantage and grabs our attention. As the industry grows there’s an increase in the needs for requirements of basic levels of foundation skills and knowledge of the ad agency industry.”Gemma Beeley – Universal Media Digital Lead ; MFA Interactive Board member

Agencies take internships very seriously and encourage grads / students to be part of internships. As an intern you may not initially be paid a full time equivalent wage, but the BIG ground shaker is this: Around 8 in 10 internships lead to a full time position. Internships lead to great workplace opportunities via exposure to the agency operations and eco systems.

The key qualities and skills required

What are those unique skills or qualities an ad agency requires as a minimum that sets you apart from another grad applying for a position in their company?

Passion – a degree of some sort combined with a knowledge of the industry beyond just the basics

Ambition – to do and go that extra beyond the degree. Get your own Google Certification; working pro bono on a campaign for a charity are just a start

Curiosity and initiative – At Macleay College we can train skill but curiosity and initiative goes beyond the trainable skills. Seek, look, follow, question.

The advertising eco system is changing

What did I learn from the MFA’s industry insights? Media agency roles have changed and continue to evolve with agencies now becoming consultants and advisors as well as solving specific client issues. Understanding the nuances of agencies, the fluidity of their roles and client requirements, then giving these understandings to our grads is vital across all areas of our Macleay College curriculum is vital. It’s something we strive to equip you with throughout each and every one of your learning experiences with us.

By David RogersonLecturer in Advertising, Digital Media and Business Entrepreneurship

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Dr Zimper is welcomed to Macleay by Head of Faculty, Ian Thomson and Dean, Bob Robertson.

Great to have Dr Martin Zimper from the University of the Arts in Zurich at Macleay College. Martin was the international course consultant for the successful development and accreditation of Macleay’s Bachelor of Digital Media, which will be rolling out new specialisation streams in Content Writing, User Experience Design, Coding & Analytics and Digital Entrepreneurship in addition to the Digital Marketing and Content Creation streams from 2019.

You can read more about Ian’s trip to Zurich to consult with Dr Zimper here:

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Video Production lecturer Cisco Corea speaking to students about his award winning MTV Adidas campaign.

I’m pleased to announce that our Video Production lecturer Cisco Corea has just won a best advertising campaign of the year / Branded Content at the ASTRA awards for the MTV Adidas campaign he produced and directed.

Our Sydney copywriting lecturer Cameron Horn is nominated for the 6th year in a row at the ACRA Radio Awards, and up against his ex-student Katrina Fowler for the second year running. Account Management graduate Kyra Brown is also nominated this year. Congratulations to all three.

Ian Thomson’s latest short film THE INVISIBLE EDGE was also an official selection in the London Independent Film Awards, pre-selected for the New Zealand Film Awards, and was a finalist in the Mindscape Film Festival in Los Angeles. The film will also be screened as part of The Big Anxiety Festival in Sydney.

The Advertising & Media faculty are pleased to be launching a new unit in GAMIFICATION in T3, developed and delivered by the award-winning advertising creative director and author, Simon Veksner.

It will also be the first roll-out of the AUDIO STORYTELLING unit with multi-ACRA-award winning radio copywriter Cameron Horn. This unit teaches student radio advertising script-writing, audio production using ProTools and the increasing popular art of podcasting.

In Melbourne we will be running a new elective in COPYWRITINGwith the local Melbourne Social Media personality Candy Hertz.

We are looking forward to welcoming Lizzie Mack on-board to deliver the new STORY & NARRATIVE unit as part of the Digital Media Diploma and Degree in T3. Lizzie is not only a seasoned social media marketing and film teacher, but also a talented jazz vocalist (https://twitter.com/macklizzie). The unit explores a vast array of storytelling techniques for digital media projects, from online video, to interactive games and digital marketing campaigns.

Digital Design lecturer Jason Gemenis has just launched his new digital agency PEPPERMINT. This not only offers students great industry focused learning at the coal-face of digital marketing, design and media, but Jason also offers internships for budding digital design specialists.

In addition, in November this year our CREATIVE PROCESS lecturer Julieann Brooker will be travelling to Bhutan with Dr Lindsay Oades, Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, to study the measurement and embodiment of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in a combined program between GNH Bhutan and GNH Australia.